Creating lasting health justice across the nation
In today's world, the need for compassion, care and support is greater than ever. CommonSpirit Health® is committed to meeting these challenges by building healthy communities, advocating for the poor and the vulnerable and focusing on where healing can truly take place.
Across our ministry, philanthropy is an essential component that fuels our innovative approach to create enduring health justice for all. In 2023, our philanthropic partners contributed more than $5 million to advance this critical work. Individual donors join together in partnership with our 80 foundations located in 20 states to transform their contributions into meaningful and lasting change in communities stretching across the entire country.
Guided by a deep commitment to humankindness, CommonSpirit Health Foundation accelerates this work by organizing our fundraising efforts — and the incredible impact that is made through these generous gifts — around priority initiatives aimed at addressing the root causes of systemic issues, such as violence prevention and human trafficking response, mental and behavioral health, and community health.
One way CommonSpirit is leveraging philanthropy to change lives and strengthen communities is through the historic More in Common Alliance, a 10-year, $100 million partnership between CommonSpirit and Morehouse School of Medicine to increase cultural competency and expand representation to improve both access and quality of care patients receive.
Thanks to $2 million in grant funding from the California Department of Health Care Access and Information (HCAI), the first class of eight family medicine residents will begin their training at the new Morehouse School of Medicine Dominican Hospital Family Medicine Residency Program at Dignity Health Dominican Hospital in July 2024.
“We’re honored to have been awarded a $2 million HCAI grant to help us launch our new family medicine residency right here in Santa Cruz. I believe Dominican Hospital was chosen because of the extraordinary potential we have to impact patient outcomes in the diverse community we serve,” said Dominican Hospital President Nanette Mickiewicz, MD. “We are laying the foundation for patients to have more access to culturally competent providers and for underrepresented medical students, post-graduate residents and fellows to gain community-based experience that they need to be successful in their work.”
With Morehouse School of Medicine as the program’s academic sponsor, post-graduate residents and fellows will benefit from training focused on addressing health inequities and underserved patients.
Dominican Hospital was chosen as one of seven sites that will address two of the most pressing challenges in health care — a shortage of diverse clinicians and the need for more equitable health care. This HCAI grant is a perfect example of how we can accelerate this health equity work to begin making a difference in communities right away.
Announced in December 2020, the partnership between CommonSpirit Health and the Morehouse School of Medicine will increase medical education opportunities for more Black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). More in Common Alliance was established as the partnership name because research demonstrates that patients consistently fare better when treated by clinicians of similar backgrounds who share lived experiences.
“We know that, statistically and anecdotally, patients have better outcomes when treated by a clinician who comes from a similar background,” said Morehouse School of Medicine President and CEO Dr. Valerie Montgomery Rice. “Yet, in the medical field, there are far too few providers from underrepresented groups, and the impact that has on patient care is astounding. Through the More in Common Alliance, our aim is to change the math and the face of health care in the U.S.”
